Wanderings of the Troubled Artist

Well, the day finally arrived, and the move is done, and my legs, thighs to be exact, are sorer than on any of the hikes or walks I've taken in recent times. In fact, those hikes were not sore-leg inducing events, but today's move with so many climbs up and down the stairs to get things out and ditto at new place bringing stuff in....well, there you have it. I am no longer in the Centro, the center touristic part of the city (even if I was in the outer stretches of it), and I am now within walking distance of the mountains. It feels good to have a more permanent spot to stay in. The Calle Colon apartment was always temporary and only until mid October, so that fact was always in the back of my mind, and weighing it down a bit in the process. But now I have a place and can relax. Now, mind you, I am not planning to stay here in this apartment or town forever. That was not part of the plan, unless I ended up feeling that Oaxaca was the be all and end all of places to live, whi...

Well, OK, post after post after post after post about Guanajauto, and suddenly I am shifting into Oaxaca mode? Well, I warned you about that, so bear with me. Call me Tony, as in the Time Tunnel, if you remember that goofball show from the ancient days.... Anyways, yes, after almost 3 months here as a visitor in Oaxaca, I am soon to be in my own longer-term rental in the San Felipe area, which is up closer to the mountains, albeit 30 minutes into the heart of the city. The move coming up very soon, I figured now might be a good time to give you all a look at where I have been staying for the since late July. It is an apartment, normally an AirBnB, setup, that is in the outskirts of the Centro, or, in other words, within the Periférico, which is the bottom half of the loop highway that people use as the border of the centro. I guess you could think of it as the Beltway, Oaxaca version, albeit with a bit less traffic and pzazz. Being at the outskirts of the historic core, it is no...

I had only moved to Mexico a week and a bit earlier, but already I was going to have my first visitors - one of the exchange students, and a very special one at that, from the university where I had been working for the final nine years of my working life, Winston-Salem State Unviersity. Yoonyoung, and her sister were coming, both on the start of their weeks long Latin American journey, a journey that would ultimately take them to Tikal in Guatemala, the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, and ultimately to Macchu Pichu in Peru. For me this was a big event. Not only was it going to be my first visitor since moving to Mexico, but it was also going to be my first visitor from anywhere since moving away from Los Angeles so many many years before. 19 years I lived in Japan and, save for my mother, no one came to visit;  2 years in Portland, Oregon, and no one, save for my mother, came to visit; 2 years in New Jersey, and no one came to visit, not even my mother; and 9 years in North Caroli...